Frequently asked questions about the Charter

The Charter is a shared statement of ten principles for advancing sauna-bathing as a public good. It unites the people and organisations who build, run and champion public saunas around the world, and gives municipalities, funders and communities a common reference for what responsible, accessible public sauna looks like, respectful of cultural origins.

The Charter was drafted by community and public sauna advocate Becky Pelkonen (Kamu Sauna, Sauna from Finland, University of Eastern Finland) and introduced in draft at the World Sauna Forum 2026, held by Sauna from Finland in Jyväskylä, Finland. It was developed under the advice of Polly Wilson and Charlie Duckworth (Community Sauna Baths, UK), Freddie Mehigan (Community Sauna Network, UK), Azar Eskandarpour (Humans Who Bathe), Ian Whelan and Steve Crosbie (Fad Saoil Saunas, Ireland), Juho Pelkonen and Niamh Murphy (Kamu Sauna Canada), Jason Wong (Kotisauna Canada), and with guidance from knowledge holders Mikkel Aaland and Dalva Lamminmäki. As such, it is stewarded by a founding group representing community sauna champions and organisations across several countries.

Signing means choosing the principles most relevant to your work and stating, in your own words, how you will put them into practice. Your commitments are recorded with your signature and revisited in future check-ins.

The Charter values meaningful commitment over the number of signatories.

Anyone working to strengthen public sauna as a common good can sign, including public sauna operators and keepers, community sauna organisations and networks, municipalities and Indigenous Nations, tourism and public health organisations, researchers and educators, designers, builders, manufacturers and suppliers, funders and investors, and individual bathers and advocates.

You do not need to run a sauna. You simply need to state what you will do, in your own role, to support the Charter’s principles.

Two conditions apply:

• A reference is required. New signatories need a letter or statement of reference from an existing signatory, either an individual or organisation. Founding and initial signatories are exempt.
• Public sauna operators should meet the Charter’s definition of public sauna, outlined in the next answer.

Saunas in spas, hotels, gyms, and clubs are part of sauna culture, and many people first encounter the practice there. The Charter’s focus is narrower: public sauna-baths where broad and equitable access is a priority.

An amenity serves its guests. A public sauna-bath serves its public.

For operators, this distinction may affect eligibility to sign. A sauna must offer published public sessions that people can attend individually, without requiring exclusive membership, an overnight stay, or the purchase of another product or service.

Private sessions, memberships, and private hire can exist alongside public access. A sauna does not need to operate exclusively as a public sauna-bath to qualify. What matters is that meaningful public access is part of its regular operation.

A sauna open only to exclusive members, hotel guests, private groups, or another restricted group is considered a private amenity and is not currently eligible to sign.

Operators who do not yet meet the definition of public sauna are still welcome to connect with the movement, learn from the Charter, and work toward broader public access.

Our wider aim is to strengthen sauna practice everywhere, and to showcase the many ways sauna can be operated for the public good.

No. Signing the Charter is a public commitment, not a certification.

The Charter does not audit or accredit operations, and signing does not certify safety, quality, or authenticity. Signatories are welcome to say they have signed the Charter and to share their commitments, but should not describe themselves as certified, accredited, or endorsed by the Charter or its stewards.

That distinction matters. It helps the public understand what signing means and protects the integrity of the commitments made by signatories.

For now, the Charter is focused on building shared principles, stronger practice, and collective accountability across a growing movement. In time, we hope to work with wider networks, cultural representatives, and knowledge holders to explore training and accreditation that is genuinely grounded in sauna practice and tradition.

The Charter is voluntary and works through self-regulation, transparent reporting, and community-based accountability. There is no routine audit or inspection by the stewards.

When signing, you choose the principles most relevant to your work, make specific commitments, and explain how you will know they are being put into practice. Future check-ins return to those commitments.

Signing also requires a reference from an existing signatory, either an individual or an organisation.

The Charter is intended to support learning and improvement, not punish honest shortcomings. However, if a signatory’s practices are found to be causing serious harm to bathers, communities, or the traditions the Charter seeks to honour, the founding stewards may revoke signatory status by consensus.

Start by building alignment within your organisation. For a municipality, that may mean council or the mayor’s office; for an organisation, your board or team; for an individual, simply your own considered commitment.

Then complete the signing questionnaire, which has three parts: Commitment, Contribution, and Consent and Affirmation. You will also need a reference from an existing signatory.

Signing takes place in set intake rounds, two to four times per year, announced in advance. The stewards review each round together before new signatories are confirmed.

No. There is currently no mandatory fee to sign the Charter.

Donations are gratefully received and go directly toward the work of the movement. Donate →

Funds are stewarded by the founding stewards and used for Charter administration, online infrastructure, and the development of gatherings, training, research, and case studies.

If you’re interested in contributing time, skills, or other in-kind support instead of money, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch →

Sauna-bathing. A living culture and practice rooted in Finnish, Baltic-Finnic, and Nordic traditions. Its heart is the sauna room and the pouring of water on hot stones, known in Finnish as löyly. Sauna is a Finnish word; closely related traditions are known by other names, such as badstue in Norwegian, bastu in Swedish, and saun in Estonian.

Public sauna-bath. A sauna-bathing space where broad and equitable public access is the priority. People can attend individually during published public sessions, on clear terms, without needing an overnight stay, membership in a particular group, or the purchase of another product or service. Private hire and memberships may exist alongside public sessions. Public sauna-baths can be municipal, non-profit, cooperative, community-owned, social enterprise, commercial, or hybrid. What makes a sauna-bath public is access, not ownership.

Community sauna-bath. A public sauna-bath rooted in a particular place and shaped by the people who tend it. Community members have genuine belonging and stake, and the community is its primary beneficiary. Visitors are welcome as guests into something built for the community first.

Sweat-bathing. The wider family of heat- and steam-bathing traditions found across many cultures. These include sauna, hammam, banya, jjimjilbang, mushi-buro, temazcal, Indigenous sweat-lodge ceremonial practices, Tigh ’n Alluis and many others. Each has its own name, traditions, knowledge holders, and cultural meaning, and should be understood on its own terms.

Because precision and respect go together. Sweat-bathing belongs to many cultures. This Charter focuses on one branch of that wider family: sauna-bathing, a living culture rooted in Finnish, Baltic-Finnic, and Nordic traditions and practised in place-based ways around the world.

Sauna is a Finnish word. Other cultures know their practices by their own names, and those names carry knowledge, history, and meaning. When every heated room is called a sauna, distinct traditions can become blurred. Holding the terms steady helps each remain visible. Many names, one river.

The two sweat-bathing traditions currently inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa in Estonia and sauna culture in Finland , are both Baltic-Finnic. The Charter also honours traditions including Tigh ’n Alluis, hammam, banya, jjimjilbang, mushi-buro, temazcal, Indigenous sweat-lodge ceremonial practices, and many others, each on its own terms rather than flattened into one.

We enter every sauna-bath, every sweat-bath, and every culture’s practice as guests.

Sauna-bathing is a global movement, and public sauna-bathing is about the common good.

The Charter connects its work to three wider UN frameworks: the Harmony with Nature programme, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the UN International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism (2027).

Public sauna-bathing can be low-footprint, culturally rooted, community-led infrastructure. Linking the Charter to these wider frameworks helps governments, funders, and other decision-makers recognise its social, cultural, environmental, and community value.

The founding stewards bring together practitioners, community sauna leaders, researchers, and knowledge holders from across the international sauna movement.

They include Polly Wilson and Charlie Duckworth (Community Sauna Baths, UK), Freddie Mehigan (Community Sauna Network, UK), Azar Eskandarpour (Humans Who Bathe), Ian Whelan and Steve Crosbie (Fad Saoil Saunas, Ireland), Juho Pelkonen and Niamh Murphy (Kamu Sauna, Canada), and Jason Wong (Kotisauna, Canada), with guidance from knowledge holders Mikkel Aaland and Dalva Lamminmäki.

The initiative is led by Becky Pelkonen (Kamu Sauna, Sauna from Finland, University of Eastern Finland).

No single thread leads here. Public saunas have been built, revived, and tended by many hands in many places. The Charter gathers from that work. Some markers along the way:

• 2014: The smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa, Estonia, is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
• 2017: Sauna culture is added to Finland’s National Inventory of Living Heritage, an important step toward UNESCO nomination. Sauna clubs and associations across Finland take up the campaign the following year.
• 2020: Sauna culture in Finland is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognising sauna as living heritage and raising its international visibility.
• 2020s: A new wave of public and community saunas takes root across the UK, Ireland, the Nordics, North America, and beyond, alongside growing research on sauna, health, wellbeing, and social connection.
• June 2026: Finland adds perinnesaunottaminen to its National Inventory of Living Heritage: the tradition of being bathed by a sauna healer, including sauna songs, spells, and practices marking important moments in life. The application is developed by practitioners through Perinnesaunottajat ry and Taivaannaula ry.
• June 2026: At the World Sauna Forum in Jyväskylä, Finland, the “Sauna for Society: Global Action for Community Sauna” workshop brings together practitioners from multiple countries. The idea for a shared Public Sauna-Bathing Charter is carried forward from that gathering by the founding stewards.
• 2026–2027: The Charter is refined with stewards and founding signatories, the first signing rounds open, and Sauna for All begins building a wider international network around public sauna as a common good, including alignment with the UN International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism 2027.

This timeline will continue to grow as new milestones, gatherings, and developments unfold.

The United Nations has declared 2027 the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism.

Public sauna-bathing belongs in that conversation. At its best, it is low-footprint, community-rooted infrastructure that can keep value in place, strengthen local culture, and deepen visitors’ relationship with the communities they enter.

The International Year gives the movement a global moment to show how public sauna can contribute to more regenerative, resilient, and community-led tourism.

The ten principles are written to endure. The Charter may be revised when needed, but changes are rare, considered, versioned, and made openly.

Any signatory may propose a change. Proposals are welcomed, but not every suggestion will result in a revision or be taken forward for formal consideration.

Supporting guidance, resources, and tools can evolve more continuously as the movement learns and grows.

Web: www.saunaforall.org
Email: hei@saunaforall.org